At Your Leisure

Word of the Week:

When asked for to put his full name on a test, Stephen was mononymous and put his first name. His professor never returned his paper after grading it.

Quote of the Week:

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.” – Mazer Rackham, “Ender’s Game.”

Stream of Facts:

Axolotls, an amphibian species, diverged in evolution from another type called tiger salamanders, which resemble axolotls as juveniles but become terrestrial upon maturation. Researchers recently found that if injected with iodine, axolotls rapidly mature to look like tiger salamanders. They have a life span of a year following the procedure and can die from iodine poisoning if too high of a dose.

Humans can actually die from having too much chocolate. Theobromine, a toxicant present in dark chocolate can result in lethal food poisoning when as much as 6.51 kg is ingested. Most regular processed chocolate however contains small amounts of theobromine, around 40-60 mg.

The name for the Xbox was quite literal. The name Xbox original stood for DirectX-Box, a gaming system that processed DirectX code. While initially hated by Microsoft’s marketing team, the name Xbox outlived others and responded positively in focus groups.

According to Oxford University researchers, counting sheep in order fall asleep is not effective as a sleep aid and actually makes the process of sleeping take longer by having them focus on a boring activity. Those in the other testing group that were instructed to picture a relaxing scene only took an average of 20 minutes to fall asleep.

Reporter Recommends: Rainwave.fm

Often, as a gamer, I get into the mood to listen to game music but never really have an idea as to what I want to listen to. Sometimes, aimlessly searching on Youtube or reddit’s /r/gamemusic subreddit becomes a tad distracting to what I need to accomplish when trying to work. Rainwave.fm generally is a good way to leave the music to the station.

Dividing music selection into five categories (all, game, chiptune, covers and OCRemix), the online radio station randomizes music from its catalog as well as accepts requests which are voted on by the listeners. Rainwave.fm has quite a decent collection of game music that stems from the 8-bit era and covers most games from recent years. Although this library can seem outdated at times, you’ll get the occasional recent soundtrack at your disposal. Besides this minor damper, the experience of using Rainwave.fm is great when you want to listen to some classic tunes.

The randomized feature ensures you don’t have to request as often. The site also features a cooldown feature which limits how many times a song is played per day, ensuring there is some music discovery while listening. Rainwave.fm excels the most when there are multiple people requesting on the site, increasing how variable the music is. At times with lower user requesting, the site can sometimes seem somewhat listless.

When at its apex, Rainwave.fm provides a nifty listening experience for those who appreciate game music.